"We want to send a message that any crime that's committed purely based on hatred or prejudice against a group of people is not to be tolerated but it ought to be something that is taken into account in the sentencing principles in this state", he said.

There has been a wave of assaults on Indian students in Melbourne in the past year.

In recent weeks, a 25-year-old man was seriously hurt after being stabbed by intruders with a screwdriver at a birthday party at his home. He remains in hospital.

His friend, Srinivas Vedantam, insists the attack was racially-motivated.

"When they entered the party and they started abusing - using the racial abuses, like 'You black Indians', like that stuff. So it ended up with a racial attack", he said.

At the weekend thousands of Indian students demonstrated in Melbourne demanding more protection from the police.

However, senior officers doubt that the violence is exclusively motivated by racial prejudice.

They have insisted that students in general have become "easy targets" for opportunistic criminals.

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